Game Night
by Malvolia
Summary: Jim is hosting a video game night at Karen's place, but with Karen and Pam out to have a talk, it's not going to be easy for him to focus. Ryan expects to clean up.
1. Shiny Happy Xbox

"Oh, man," said Ryan. "This is a sweet set-up." He ran a hand lovingly over the shiny surface of the speaker to the right of the large-screen TV that filled most of the living room, then turned his envious gaze to the Xbox 360 and the shelves of games just above it.

"Yeah," said Jim nonchalantly.

"Are you sure she won't mind?" Ryan asked.

Alertness snapped back into Jim's eyes. "What? Oh, no. She said we could make ourselves at home while she and Pam are out. She said not to wait up," he finished slowly, his gaze once again becoming unfocused.

"Oh, man," repeated Ryan, an edge of barely controlled obsession in his voice as he pulled a game off the shelf. "She has _Call of Duty_. I think I'm in love." He shot a glance at Jim. "Kidding," he said.

But Jim hadn't noticed.

Ryan put the game in the Xbox 360 and went to get a plate of snacks while the game was loading. "Who else is coming?" he asked.

"Mark is on the phone in the other room," said Jim. "And I invited Toby and Kevin, but I'm not sure they'll show."

Ryan froze. "Um…where were you when you invited Toby?"

"The break room," Jim said. "Why?"

Heaving a sigh, Ryan picked up a pop can and headed for the couch. "No reason," he said.

Jim eyed him carefully. "Kelly was in the break room," he said, and Ryan's face went completely blank.

"But she left before Toby came in," said Jim.

Ryan sighed again.

Jim grinned and shook his head. "Why are you still with her?"

Ryan shot him a look of disbelief mixed with a touch of disdain. "Are you kidding? Breaking up with a coworker?"

Jim turned his back to Ryan and busied himself at the counter with his plate of snacks.

"My advice to anyone who is even remotely thinking about an office romance is 'forget about it,'" Ryan pronounced. "You go there, and there go the best years of your life. With no end in sight."

The doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Jim said quickly.

Toby stood at the door, looking a little out of place. "Hey, Jim," he said. "Thanks for the invitation."

"Glad you could make it," said Jim.

"I'm gonna warn you in advance that I'm terrible at video games," Toby said.

"Me, too," said Jim. "The only skill I have is because Karen trained me."

Ryan was picking out a game configuration. "I believe the word she uses is 'schooled,'" he said.

"Where is Karen?" Toby asked, looking around. "This is her house, right?"

"It is," said Jim. "And she's out tonight, but she's letting us use the place in her absence."

"That's nice of her," said Toby. "Too bad she couldn't make it. I've heard she's the master."

"Who told you that?" said Jim, with a glance at Ryan.

"She did," Toby replied. "Oh, by the way, while I'm thinking about it, do you have that paperwork done yet?"

"No..." said Jim.

"Well, I'd like to have that by the end of the week, if you don't mind."

Jim lowered his voice. "You may not need it by the end of the week."

Toby searched Jim's face. Jim nodded.

"Ah," Toby said. It was his turn to look unfocused.

"We're ready," Ryan called, standing up from his place as the sole occupant of the couch. "I'm going to go find Mark."

Jim grinned at Toby. "Brace yourself—we're about to be slaughtered."

Sure enough, after Mark appeared and took his place, the Nazis were rapidly destroying the Allied army—or at least the part of the army represented by Jim and Toby. Jim was maneuvering well, but slowly. Toby was getting stuck in corners a lot.

"Beaten by the Axis powers," muttered Toby.

"For now," said Jim. "But maybe we're the French in the early stages of the war. So, you know, later the rest of the Allies rally and come to our rescue."

"You're Americans," said Ryan. "That's how I set you up."

Jim raised his eyebrow at Toby, who shrugged in response. "It's an alternate universe," said Jim. "There's no other explanation."

"How about 'You suck'?" Ryan offered casually.

Mark laughed. "You sound like Karen," he said. "Maybe she's with the wrong guy, huh, Jim?"

"Yeah, maybe," Jim replied.

Ryan looked up. "You do _not_ want to break up with Karen."

"Because of the office romance thing?"

"Well, yeah, and because she's…" Ryan looked back at the screen and gestured expressively with his controller.

"I'll keep that in mind," said Jim.

Ryan muttered something under his breath and stared at the screen darkly, jabbing at buttons with an unnecessary amount of force.

"Office romances are difficult," said Toby. Jim looked at him curiously. "From an HR standpoint, I mean," Toby continued. "They're…distracting. I'm sure you guys know what I mean."

Ryan's jaw twitched and Jim opened his mouth to respond, but the sound of the doorbell cut him off. With an apologetic shrug at Toby, he got up to answer it.

"Pam," he said in surprise, and three heads turned towards the door.

"Hi," said Pam. She was standing on the doormat, hands twisting around a damp tissue that would have betrayed she had been crying if there hadn't already been red streaks running down her face.

He looked over her shoulder towards the street. "I didn't think you'd be back so soon," he said.

"She's not," said Pam. "Back. Just me. I had to…." She stopped, and he saw she was shivering.

"Want to come in?" he asked.

"No," she said, "but…."

He waited, studying her face intently.

"Could you come out?"

He stared at her, and she took a step back.

"I mean, if you're not in the middle of something. You're probably…oh, yeah, video game night…I completely forgot. Hey, listen, I'm sorry, I'll just…."

Jim held up a hand and she stopped. He leaned back into the house, grabbed a coat, and stepped across the threshold.

He looked at her and shrugged.

"Can we walk?" she asked.

"I'm ready if you are," he said.


	2. Playing Honest

Kevin came late. "Where's Jim?" he asked.

"Out with Pam," Mark said.

"Pam?" Kevin asked. "I thought he was dating Karen."

Ryan shrugged.

Kevin grinned. "Awww, yeah. Go, Jim."

"We're in the middle of a game," said Ryan. "We'll get you into the next one."

"No problem," said Kevin. He wandered over to the food table.

The door slammed open, and Karen stormed in, kicking the door shut behind her. She ran her eyes over the startled men in the living room. "Crap, that's right," she said. "Game night."

"We can leave," said Toby. Ryan's eyes widened and he shook his head slightly.

Karen took a deep breath. "Nah," she said. "You guys have been planning on this for weeks. Don't let me bother you." She turned and headed for the bedroom.

"Want to kill some Germans?" Ryan asked.

She stopped, swiveled, and stared at the screen. Then she dropped her purse, kicked off her high heeled shoes, and nodded. "Absolutely."

"I'll reconfigure," Ryan said, canceling the game they were playing over a mild protest from Toby, who had finally been in position to make a shot. "Toby, could you get me a beer?"

Toby looked from Ryan, who was sitting right next to him, to Karen, who still needed a seat. He looked back at Ryan. "I don't think so."

"I'll get it for you," said Mark. "I'm a little thirsty, myself. Have a seat, Karen. Can I get you anything?"

"Nope," said Karen, flopping onto the couch on the other side of Ryan. "Something tells me I shouldn't be drinking tonight."

"Probably a good idea," said Toby. He caught Ryan's eye and raised his eyebrows. Ryan just shrugged.

Kevin came by the couch. "Where am I going to sit?"

"Floor's open," said Ryan.

Kevin stood forlornly, gazing at the couch. "My knees are bad," he said. "I might not be able to stand up again."

Ryan and Karen ignored him. Toby sighed and shifted off the couch to sit cross-legged on the floor. Ryan shifted closer to Karen as Kevin lowered himself onto the couch.

"There's only four controllers," Karen announced to the room in general. Neither she nor Ryan showed any sign of relinquishing their controllers.

"That's okay," said Kevin, taking a chip off the top of his precariously piled plate. "I'll just watch you guys for this round."

"You play a lot of video games?" Toby asked Kevin.

"Oh, yeah," said Kevin. "I have mad skills."

"Oh," said Toby. "Maybe I..."

Mark rejoined the group. "Ready?"

"Prepare to die," said Karen, adding under her breath, "I'm in a _really_ bad mood."

Toby shifted uncomfortably.

* * *

Pam didn't look any more comfortable than Toby. She and Jim were several blocks away from Karen's place now. She walked briskly, her eyes on the snowy pavement in front of her.

Jim cleared his throat. "When you said walking, I didn't know you meant just walking."

"I'm sorr..."

"Geez, Pam, don't apologize," he said, kicking a clump of ice. "Would you just quit..." He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. "We're friends, and I'd walk to Timbuktu for you, but you look like somebody who needs to be talking and is trying not to be."

She laughed, a short, weak sound in the echoing cold. "I don't know what to say," she said.

"You don't know what to say or you don't want to say it?"

She bit her bottom lip and looked out at the street. "Or maybe I don't want to know what to say, because I don't want to know what it means, and I know what it's like not to say it, and what that looks like, and at least that's familiar."

Jim's head moved back in astonishment. "Wow," he said. "Okay. See, that's a great start."

"I like Karen," she said.

"Me, too."

"I don't want her to get hurt."

"Neither do I."

"Then why did you say...the things you said to her?"

Jim shoved his hands into his pockets. "I figured that eventually, it'd turn out that if I kept lying to her it was going to hurt her anyway. Maybe worse, even."

"Sometimes telling the truth hurts just as much," said Pam, and he nodded.

They were silent for another few blocks.

"So if lying to someone changes their life, and telling the truth changes their life, then maybe that means you're just the sort of person who changes lives either way."

"In that case, I guess all you have to decide is if you're going to play it honest or not."

She brushed a mitten across her eyes. "But you hurt people either way. Changing people hurts them."

"Well, going running hurts me, sometimes," said Jim. "But otherwise, what do I become?" He stopped walking and waited for her to turn and look at him, then he shrugged. "Kevin, maybe?"

She laughed, a real laugh that made it all the way to her eyes, and he grinned back at her.

"I missed you so much," she said, and even as the anxiety flooded her face she held his gaze.

"I hoped so," he said. "I missed you, too." She smiled again, small and nervous, and looked back down at the icy sidewalk.

They walked on in silence, and this time the silence was comfortable.


	3. The Problem with Russians

Toby flinched away as Karen's foot kicked out in time with her triumphant yell.

"What…how did you do that?" Ryan asked. "I was completely undercover."

"Nothing is impossible for the master," she grinned. "Watch and learn, young apprentice."

"Yeah, whatever," said Ryan. "You're going down this time."

"I very much doubt that," she said.

"Maybe if you stopped following Karen around, you'd have a better chance of staying alive," Kevin volunteered. He had yet to claim a controller.

Toby looked at his watch. "Wow," he said. "I didn't know it was this late. I'd better go."

"It's 9 o'clock," said Kevin.

"I've got a long drive," said Toby.

"You live 10 miles from here."

Toby and Kevin stared at each other, then Toby sighed. "I have to go." He handed Kevin his controller and moved to get his coat from the closet.

"I should go, too," said Mark. "I have to call my fiancée back."

Kevin held his plate a little tighter. "I don't have anywhere to be," he said.

"Thanks for letting us come by, Karen," said Toby.

"Yeah, it was fun," said Mark.

"Thanks for coming, guys," said Karen. Her jaw stiffened. "Sorry Jim's not here to say goodbye."

"Um, that's okay," said Toby. "I'll see him tomorrow." He held the door open as Mark left, stepped over the threshold, and stuck his head back in. "You've got a great place here," he said.

"Thank you," Karen said darkly.

Toby hesitated.

"Come on, Toby, close the door," Ryan called. "It's freezing out there."

"Bye, Toby," said Kevin.

The door closed.

* * *

Jim took a sip of his coffee as Pam shrugged off her coat.

"It's so cold out there," she said.

"Yeah," he said.

"It's like, you know it's winter, but then you're out there, and it's _cold_."

"The season comes every year," he said.

"I _know_!" she said. "Seriously!"

There was a long pause.

"I used to be good at this," she said.

"What, drinking coffee?"

"No, that. Casual conversation. With you."

He smiled reminiscently, and they sat quietly for a few minutes.

"Hey," he said.

"Yes?"

"You any good at video games?"

"Oh, totally," she said.

"I'm serious."

"Okay, not really. Roy never... Um, I was barely allowed to play. It was a guy thing."

"How sad for you."

"Yeah," she said. "I'm still not over it. I had to turn to art for solace."

Her face was too straight. Jim quirked an eyebrow at her and she dissolved into laughter.

* * *

"Take that, Jerry," Karen said.

Ryan raised his eyebrows dubiously. "Nazis," he said. "Gotta hate 'em."

"You know who were worse than the Nazis?" Karen asked. "The Russians." She jabbed at the shoot button. "They pretended to be our friends, and all the time they're scheming behind our backs, trying to get a piece of Europe."

Ryan glanced over at her and suffered the loss of one of his lives in consequence.

"And you can have summit after unilateral talk after treaty, and none of them can be trusted," she said. "The Nazis were killers with delusions of grandeur, but at least you know where you were with them. At least they weren't sneaking around behind your back, or lying to your face."

"In the interests of honesty," said Ryan, "I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about. But I'm thinking it's not international politics."

Karen tossed her controller onto the couch and held her head in both hands.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I think you should go. I need to be by myself."

"Hey, I'm sorry," said Ryan. "Can I..."

"No, you can't," she said. "I don't need anybody to do anything, and I don't want to talk to anybody—especially somebody who has a girlfriend. What's _wrong_ with you people?" she burst out, glaring at him. "You can't have it both ways, and you can't go back and forth, and don't try to lie to yourself and say you're trying to save people's feelings when you're just trying to keep yourself from looking like a big jerk, because you know what?"

Ryan blinked and swallowed. "What?"

"Because you _are_ a big jerk, that's what," she said. "And don't think you can just flash a smile and a clever phrase and get out of it, because that doesn't work forever."

Ryan stared into the TV screen and rubbed his palms on his knees.

"You're right," he said finally.

Karen looked at him in surprise, almost as if she had forgotten he was there.

"I _should_ go," he said, and pushed himself to his feet.

"Wait, Ryan, I'm sorry," she said, rising quickly and putting a hand on his arm. "I was...sort of talking to somebody else."

He nodded.

She pulled her hand back and moved to the entertainment system. "Nice of you to come," she said, pushing buttons and flicking switches to shut everything down. "You play a mean _Call of Duty_."

"Thanks," he said. "Coming from the master, that means a lot."

"You should come over again sometime," she said over her shoulder. "You can bring Kelly."

"Yeah," he said blankly. "Thanks."

"You guys are really cute together," she said. "Don't let her go, okay?"

"Okay," Ryan said dully. With one last, long, lingering look at the Xbox, he left.

When she was finally alone, Karen curled up on the couch with a pillow and stared at the curtains for a long, long time.

* * *

Her living room light was still burning as Jim held Pam's car door open for her, gave her a hand in, and watched her drive away. He looked at the lit window and hesitated. Then he sighed and walked away towards his house, scuffing his feet in the snow. 


End file.
